


Energy Level Insufficient (Temporary name)

by EternityPrevails



Series: It's called growing up (Where-in we're older but we cant outgrow the past) [5]
Category: Blue Beetle (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Nightmares, Poisoning, Seizure, Sickness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2020-05-12 14:50:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 7,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19231318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternityPrevails/pseuds/EternityPrevails
Summary: When Jamie wakes up sick and weak Khaji's scanner pick up on a potential poisoning. The problem is with Jamie too weak to keep consciousness and Khaji's battery being all but dead nobody can really tell this information to the team.Told through a mix of traditional writing, dreams, and Khaji error codes.





	1. Waking up

**Author's Note:**

> Jamie is about 19  
> Bart is about 17  
> Nightwing is about 23
> 
> Nightwing has all but adopted Jamie and Khaji - only makes a minor mention in the story.  
> Bart and Jamie are dating

Jamie retched into the toilet for the fifth time in less than thirty minutes then rested his head on his arms which were crossed on the seat of the toilet. He felt like he was freezing to death and his heartbeat was loud in his ears. His stomach lurched again, and he leaned over the toilet throwing up before just resting his head back on his arms and forcing himself to breathe as evenly as he could. He had woken up about two hours ago freezing and nauseated more than likely from fighting in the rain the previous morning. 

{Jamie} Khaji asked concernedly scanning all his host's vitals in the background. His temperature was high, but his blood pressure, blood sugar, and hydration levels were concernedly low. Jamie’s head lolled to the side with a soft sigh {Jamie?} Khaji's soft voice spoke through his head {You need to lower your body temperature.} He was only met with an incoherent grunt and the feeling of being pushed to the front of the shared consciousness. 

He wasn't really interested in being on the front of consciousness but he shifted anyway, his senses always seemed to turn up to a thousand when he was in front and with Jamie being sick he could feel the Nausea, dizziness, and the feeling of freezing despite their high temperature. Worse has Jamie had almost no energy and Khaji's external battery was almost dead (since it only lasted about an hour and he had been using it to keep Jamie from fainting since he had woken up.)  
He tried to slowly stand up only to stumble and fall back down in a wave of extreme dizziness and causing him to throw up once again. Khaji had never experienced the sensation of throwing up before, he didn't like it. His sinuses being clogged mixed with his low energy seemed to lower his senses and he didn’t even hear Nightwing knock on the door or come into the room. Khaji was now sitting on the floor where he had collapsed with his bare back to the ice-cold tub and his head resting in his hand that he had propped up on his leg. 

“Are you two okay?” Nightwing asked crouching down in front of the younger boy, he had always seen Jamie and Khaji as sons. Khaji’s reaction was slowly opening his eyes which were completely yellow (a consequence of him being in control) and looking at Nightwing blankly for several long seconds. 

“We are si…” His voice faded out as his yellow-tinged eyesight started to go static and the lines of code that were at the bottom corner began to flicker and scramble into a mess of different languages. Jamie’s consciousness had fallen asleep leaving only the energy Khaji had left in his battery, which was all but dead.  
Nightwing snapped trying to get the boys attention back and to stop him from passing out, which he very much looked like he was going to do. Khaji’s eyes trailed back over to Nightwing as best he could be looking through the haze of static that was covering his sight. How long had he been sitting here, how long had Nightwing been crouched in front of him looking concerned? “We…” he tried again his vision beginning to flicker and he could hear warning sounds going off that whatever energy was left in his emergency battery was going to die at any minute. Nightwing said something but he couldn’t hear him, his vision was stated over and his systems alarm were making it hard to hear. He felt someone touching him, their hands were warm.

< System shutdown! >  
  
< Host /Jamie Reyes/ defective – energy level insufficient.>  
  
< Emergency battery 3% >

< System reboot >  
  
< Host /Jamie Reyes/ defective – energy level insufficient.>  
  
< Emergency battery 20% >

It was Khaji who woke up first and in the front of consciousness. His mind was hazy and his screens flickered on but were static making them hard to read.  
“He’s running a really high fever” The voice sounded distorted and far away. Whoever was talking wasn’t speaking to him.  
“Get some ice packs we need to cool him down” The second one was just as confusing and hazy, this is what Khaji imagined it was like when listening to people from underwater. His screen flickered a low energy warning popped up blocking out his hazy vision.  
“Khaji” the voice sounded closer and softer but he couldn’t hear what it said as his scanners spoke loudly to him. 

< Foreign contaminant located >  
  
< Potential attempted poisoning >  
  
< Host / Jamie Reyes / defective – energy level insufficient >  
  
< System entering sleep mode >  
  
< System activating emergency host / Jamie Reyes/ healing mode >  
  
< Emergency battery 18% >


	2. Seizure

< EMERGENCY Host/ Jamie Reyes/ Temperature 105.2 >

< EMERGENCY Host / Jamie Reyes/ Seizure – Cause: high temperature >

< Injected medication code 6425379 >

< Found foreign contaminant growth exponential >

< Host / Jamie Reyes / defective – energy level insufficient >

< Chemical X43275-J released into bloodstream – purpose cooling body temperature >

< WARNING: Nausea increasing >

< WARNING: Host / Jamie Reyes/ position – on back >

< WARNING: Host / Jamie Reyes/ Risk of potential aspiration of vomit due to position >

< System Activation >

< Emergency battery 8%% >

< Host / Jamie Reyes/ Consciousness forced background >

Khaji woke up in front of consciousness, He pushed himself off his back and onto his elbow. Nausea swept over him quickly and he leaned over the edge of the bed seconds before he was on throwing up uncontrollably. Every time he thought that he was done for a second his stomach would constrict and cause him to vomit again so much that he couldn’t even get a breath in. He felt someone rubbing his back and whispering but he couldn’t understand what they were saying.  
After several minutes he finally stopped and felt dizzy. He felt himself begin to faint but couldn’t push himself back onto the bed, he was concerned he was going to fall but a strong arm wrapped around his chest and played him back down on the bed. He slowly flickered his eyes opened to see he was in the medbay and not his room. Looking around weakly he saw Bart and Nightwing, it must have been Bart rubbing his back and Nightwing stopping him from falling. 

“Jamie?” Bart asked touching his boyfriend's shoulder, Khaji looked over weakly 

“Something…. Wrong …. Poisoning…. Battle…. Yesterday” He gasped between voices 

“Khaji what are you talking about?” Bart asked touching his head softly, probably to feel his temperature. Nightwing sat an ice pack on his forehead and chest looking concerned.

“Yesterday… Battle … villain … penetrated armour… injection … “He tried again gasping for breath between each word. His head lolled to the side and He was passed out again.


	3. Wake up call

**Everything was black Jamie forced his eyes opened; he was flying, His teammates were all around him fighting. What were they fighting? He forced his eyes to move over to the area where his team was attacking.**

**He couldn’t quite see what they were fighting against. It was still dark, very dark. Raindrops were heavy and cold and tinked off his armour rhythmically. Why was Khaji being so quiet, what was going on? “TEAM?” He asked through the mind link, but it was all silent. He reached up to feel his com-link, but it was missing. “GUYS?” He looked around again but now his team was gone. He was the only one surrounded by the destruction of the fight. He landed on the ground and looked at the villain who was sitting on their knees on the ground. What had happened? Where did his team go?**

**Suddenly the villain was in front of him grabbing his wrist. He tried to pull away, but he felt like he had no strength in his body. [Khaji?] He asked mentally but didn’t receive an answer. He knew something was wrong about all of this but he felt like he was watching everything from the outside and he couldn’t really control anything. He felt a sharp pain in his side and tried to pull away from the villain who had undoubtedly stabbed him. The second he pulled back the villain was gone and he was falling backwards.**

Jamie jerked awake looking around frantically. He was laying on a cold bed in the med-bay. How had he gotten here, what had happened? [Khaji?] He asked mentally

{Error: Emergency Battery 7% - System in sleep mode.} He had only heard that error code once before after a long battle but even then the battery percentage had never been below double digits.

He sat up slowly getting off the bed. The minute he stood up the room tilted and began to spin uncontrollably and his knees felt like they were made of jello. Next thing he knew he was falling, he tried to grab something to balance but it just fell with a clash and he was on his knees on the ground with the world still spinning around him. He wasn’t sure how long he was on the floor before he heard the whooshing of the door open and someone run over to help him up. He blinked groggily and looked up at his saviour, surprisingly it was Kaldur

He laid back down exhausted “It’s good to see you’re awake my friend” Kaldur’s voice was over formal even after all these years he had been on land. “How long have I been out?” He asked groggily. The fact that Khaji wasn’t awake yet was concerning him slightly but he didn’t have the energy to delve too deep into concern over the AI bug. “You’ve been on and off awake for just over twenty hours” Kaldur answered putting his hand against Jamie’s forehead, Jamie didn’t remember being awake since that morning when he was throwing up. “Khaji woke up a couple of times but he was …” The Atlantean thought for a second about the best way to put it “… incoherent.”

Kaldur too his hand away with a disconcerted look on his face and wrote something on the chart “His battery is low” Jamie admitted, exhaustion starting to take him over again. His body kept switching between feeling like he was freezing to feeling like he was on fire. He closed his heavy eyes and rested his head against the pillow that was under him. “My family did anyone call them and expla…” His mind drifted and he let himself fall back into a hazy sleep.

< Host / Jamie Reyes / defective – energy level inadequate >

< Releasing Chemical XJ56439-B- Purpose to force host / Jamie Reyes/ Into sleep mode >

< Emergency battery 20% >

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave some "predictions" in the comments


	4. Idnetification

 

< ERROR CODE 645392-XJL-75 - Foreign contaminant growing exponentially >

 

< Process - attempting to isolate and identify contaminant biology >

 

< SCANNING >

.

 

.

.

< SCANNING >

.

.

.

< SCANNING >

.

.

.

<SCANNING >

.

.

.

 

< Contaminant Identification Unknow >

 

< Contaminant Biology Analysis Report... Contaminant BioTechnical Nanomachines not organic bacteria or human virus >

 

< Scanning nontechnology program signiture >

.

.

.

<SCANNING >

.

.

.

<SCANNING >

.

.

.

<SCANNING >

.

.

.

<SCANNING >

.

.

.

<SCANNING >

 

.

.

.

 

< ERROR: Noncompatable biotechnological Creator signiture >

 

< ERROR: Creation signature not of earth >

 

<WARNING! Biotechnological Creation signature .7524% identical with REACH biotechnological nanotechnology >

 

< ERROR! REACH biotechnological nanotechnology manufacturing ceased 6.25 hundred years ago >

.

.

.

 

< 12:05:36pm >

 

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Blood Pressure Low: 89/55 mmHg >

 

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Breath per minute High: 39 >

 

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Heart Rate High 73 bpm > 

 

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Blood Glucose Low 65 mg/dL >

 

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Tempeature High 105.792 >

 

< Recommended course of action forced consciousness of host //Jamie Reyes// to inform the team of findings>

 

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - energy levels insufficient >

 

< Recomended course of action forced control of host //Jamie Reyes// by KHAJI-DA to inform team of findings>

 

< Emergency Barrety 5% >

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's not much but here you go.  
> Please comment.


	5. Body Systems Failing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is super short i'll make up for it in the next chapter which should be posted by tomorrow.

< 15:05:36pm >

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Blood Pressure Dropping >

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Breath per minute Increasing >

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Heart Rate Increasing >

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Blood Glucose Dropping Rapidly >

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Tempeature Increasing Rapidly >

< EMERGENCY Host / Jamie Reyes/ Seizure – Cause: Combination high temperature and low Blood Glucose >

< Seizure Length: 138 Seconds >

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Energy failing >

< Scanning Body systems >

< EMERGENCY Host // Jamie Reyes // Body systems check - systems at risk of collapse

< Release Chemicals XJ53249, Jh53247, LX876HJ, and HGIKLM973 - Purpose: stabilize body systems >

< Warning: Nanotechnology attempting to infect KHAJI-DA Unit >

< Nanotechnology suspected attempted copy REACH nanotechnology >

< WARNING: If infultrated high potential of KHAJI-DA unit being put on 'MODE' and definite death of Host // Jamie Reyes // >

< Emergency Battery Low Percentage increasing susceptibility of Host and KHAJI-DA unit >

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment on your opinions, what you would like to see, your predictions, or other stuff


	6. Inside The Scarab

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @mysteriousAlex (Thatsuperbro) and @hollyjolly02 for commenting. Low the support

Jamie slowly opened his eyes, he was standing in an all black room with glowing blue REACH script written across the walls, floor, and ceiling. "Khaji Where am I?" He asked out loud to the bug. Instead of hearing a response in his head like he expected he saw himself Armoured up and walking toward him, he looked at his own hands and realized he was in fact in his normal skin. 

"Do not panic Jamie" The voice sounded like his own but without his accent "It is me, Khaji. I have separated your consciousness from your physical form and brought you to my dwelling." He stood in front of the confused Hispanic trying to explain what had happened. 

"We're inside the scarab?" Jamie asked confused and received a nod from Khaji. He wasn't really sure how to respond, this is what the inside of the scarab looked like. Black with writing spiralled over every surface in tight small text, he looked around again. Four large screens with labelling written in REACH that Jamie could kind of understand.

One was completely black and in the dead centre on the wall, it was labelled VISION

There was another black screen above it labelled WEAPON SYSTEMS

The one to the left was named BODY SYSTEMS and was currently covered in Jamies vital signs, consciousness levels, and chemical balances of different stuff in his body.

And the one of the right was labelled SYSTEM PROCESSING it was running code faster than Jamie could read so he only had the speed to name out the large words that were bright red in contrast to all the blue text. "EMERGENCY, WARNING, DANGER." 

"Khaji?" Jamie turned back to the armoured version of himself, it was so odd looking at the armour as a completely separate person even if that's how it was in his dreams and Barts drawings. "Why am I here? What's happening? All I remember is waking up sick this morning and then nothing." Khaji walked closer to Jamie and sat an armoured hand on the boy's shoulder looking directly into his eyes. 

"Jamie we are in danger, in our fight recently we were injected with nanomachines. Whoever made them looked like they were trying to copy REACH nanomachines that have been out of commission for hundreds of years. The machines are attempting to infiltrate the scarab through your immune system, if this happens you will die and the machines will activate a MODE like programming to take over the scarab. These machines have stopped my emergency battery from exceeding 20% which renders me in an unconscious state, similarly for you they have weakened your body so that you can not wake up to reveal this information to your teammates. The only " 

Khaji stopped talking stumbled a little, a rectangular black screen appeared on the wall behind them causing Jamie to jerk back to see it.   
< EMERGENCY BATTERY 15% >

Jamie helped Khaji sit on the floor and sat down with him, he realized that inside the scarab he had no outside physical sensations. No sense of smell, or touch, or temperature, or time. Khaji looked up at him weakly, it was the kind of look that would have been something akin to total exhaustion in humans. Khaji started speaking again slowly, he sounded breathless and exhausted "I have enough strength to wake your body up for three minutes, you need to get the martian to link the Nightwing so that I can bring him here with us, do you understand."

Jamie looked at him speechless for a few minutes   
< EMERGENCY BATTERY 14% >

"Si, Si I understand" He spoke quickly startled by the loud announcement from the magically appearing rectangle computer screen. "Get M'gann to link me and Dick, when I pass out again you bring both of us back here." He repeated his instructions and slowly saw the room start to fade to black, then the black was fading to the hospital room. 

In the corner of his eye, he could see the three-minute countdown. Quickly he hit the 'NURSE CALL' style button and hoped it would be Nightwing to come to the room, he was in luck when he saw the blue and black costumed man entire with-in thirty seconds. 

"Jamie it's good to see your awake" Dick smiled at this younger friend but Jamie didn't really have time for pleasantries, he was exhausted and the timer was ticking down quickly. 

"Dick I need you to listen to me, this is important" He spoke urgently feeling the strain on his voice. Dick was immediately listening instantly to what the body had to say. "When I was hit in battle the other day I was injected with...." his voice faded and his vision started to fade. 1:20 left he dragged his attention back "I was injected with rip-off REACH tech, I don't have time M'gann needs to link our minds so Khaji can explain."

"Jamie, what do you mean?" Dick asked but Jamie shook his head "I have less than a minute before Khaji's energy fails and we pass out again, please trust me" Dick seemed to hesitate for only half a second but then called M'gann on the intercom. He was explaining what Jamie said, the last thing Jamie heard before his vision went black again was 

"M'gann I will explain later but you need to link me and him and then don't let anyone else in here." His vision went black and he could see the thirty-second countdown at the edge of his body. He felt the tug of a mind link and his timer hit one. Suddenly he was back in the Scarab, he looked around frantically and saw Nightwing standing there looking around himself.

"Dick?" he called out and the older man looked at him 

"Jamie!" He demanded sounding more startled than angry "where are we, what's going on?" He was standing with more weight on the front of his feet and his muscles between his shoulders were tensed, he was ready to attack. Before Jamie had a chance to talk Khaji walked up to them looking weak and keeping one hand on the wall presumably to not stumble or fall in front of their leader and friend. 

"Hello Dick" Kahji smiled at him, Nightwing looked between Khaji and Jamie confusedly, "Do not worry it is just me Khaji, you are inside the scarab."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment, I really do check them every day.


	7. Welcome to the Scarab

"Yes, We are inside the Scarab" Khaji walked closer so that the three of them were now standing in a kind of circle "Do not worry, it is safe in here and you have the ability to leave whenever you desire through you will be unable to come back without a mind link." He had one hand resting against the wall and he seemed to be leaning on it rather heavily. "If we could sit down I will explain everything I know." DIck noticed the exhausted sound in Khaji's voice and nodded the three of them sitting on the floor.

"First" Khaji whispered his yellow eyes fading in and out of focus "Tell me what you recall from the last few days, Jamie first." Jamie's looked at the two men and sighed

"I won't be any help, I remember waking up sick yesterday and then passing out in my bathroom" Dicks eyes widened and looked at the Hispanic. 

"Jamie that happened almost three days ago!" Dick informed him "I heard you throwing up in your room. When I knocked you didn't respond then I heard a crash it made me concerned so I went in to check on you. Khaji was in control and was delirious, he fainted in the middle of our conversation. I brought you to the medbay to try to bring down your temperature. We've been struggling to maintain your vitals but they keep spiking and causing seizures."

Jamie looked horrified at this information and looked at Khaji for confirmation but the AI was just looking with glazy eyes at the two of them, The large rectangle screen that had popped up was now reading 12% battery and Jamie noticed the two screens that had been for weapons and vision were gone. It made him wonder momentarily how much control Khaji had over this place when he had full energy. 

"Dicks observations are true" Khaji responded eventually and the suspense or anxiety seemed to be getting to DIck 

"What is happening, we have tested for every virus and bacteria we can think of we can't find anything and you are continuing to get worse!!" Dick was sounding almost distraught at the idea of Jamie getting any worse, the boys were both basically his sons and here in the scarab, the boy looked rather pathetic and weak. At the mention of him getting worse the large screen started blaring warnings, they were in reach so DIck couldn't understand then but Jamie and Khaji recognized the words to mean another negative vital scan. 

"We must be quick now" Khaji cautioned "We were injected with nanotechnology that looks to be based on decommissioned REACH technology, it is attempting to take control of the scarab killing both me and Jamie. If this were to happen it would be able to take control of the suit. The recreated tech is about 75% identical to its REACH counterpart but it is made of new-god-tech which is incompatible with my systems." Khaji handed a very distressed looking Dick a sheet of paper with the design and programming of the technology and cautioned him to memorize it while he was here because he couldn't take it with him.  
"Someone familiar with the tech needs to analyze it and find a way to shut it down from the outside because we can not do it from in here."

The frown on Dick's face seemed to be getting worse and he looked over the information memorizing every bit of it so that he could draw it again as soon as he was out of here. If it had been any other time he would have been admiring the amazingness that was the room with glowing text and television like screens that appeared and disappeared ar random but for now, he was too focused on the tasks at hand. His Pseudo-sons and worse than that his friends were at serious risk of dying. "You were injected with this when we were fighting that villain the other morning?" Dick question and this time it was Jamie who confirmed the information, not Khaji.  
In fact, Khaji hadn't talked in a while, sitting still and leaning against a short wall that Dick was certain hadn't been there a few moments ago. He had his eyes closed and wasn't trying to hide his obvious weakness from the two of them. Jamie crawled over and sat next to his other lover resting his head on the blue chest and holding his hand. This elicited almost no response from the suit only spiking both the worries of Jamie and Dick. Neither of them could feel anything in here but Khaji lived in here he could feel everything that was happening to the scarab as well as all the internal working of Jamie's body. 

"Is there anything I can do you help y'all fight in here while we figure this out?" Dick asked standing up and walking to the two of them resting against the mystery wall. 

"At home" Khaji spoke slowly "In the drawer with Barts Sketchpad, there is a false bottom which has little blue crystals about two inches by a quarter inch. I've been making them for emergencies. Dissolve three in a bag of water and hang it, they will give us extra strength"

< EMERGENCY BATTERY: 10%>

" I don't have the strength to hold you here any longer, you've been here almost eight hours. Tell the team what you need to, we will continue to fight in here" Khaji's words turned to mumbled and Dicks body began to fade away. Before he fully vanished Jamie heard him say something sounding like I love you and just hold on.


	8. Tiny Blue Crystals

Now Dick was gone and it was just the two boys in the scarab. Khaji was still leaning against the wall and Jamie was resting his head against the blue chest, terrified and trying to process all the information he had received over the last, what had felt like minutes but was apparently hours. "Khaji?" He found himself whispering and looking up from where he was resting "Come lay down and sleep, you need to reserve your energy." Khaji looked at him with blank unfocused eyes and nodded slowly standing up from his resting place on the floor and silently walking over to a very plain twin bed (A basic black frame with a rather thin blue mattress and a small dark blue blanket) the Jamie was certain hadn't originally been there.

Jamie would have rathered his snarky and sharp personality over this obedient, quiet, plainness that he was acting like right now. They both crawled into the small bed Khaji curling up in Jamie's arms and pulling the blanket over the two of them. Jamie just traced the markings on his armour, it was unnerving that he couldn't feel the physical sensations of touch but it also explained why the scarab was so prone to sensory overloads when he was in control of consciousness. Khaji fell asleep almost immediately, his snoring sounded like the ticking and clicking that Jamie normally heard when Khaji slept but he would have never imagined it like this. 

He looked up at the televisions that now seemed smaller and the text was hazier, there was one that was still reading code too fast for him to read and the other was still looking at concerning Vital Signs

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Blood Pressure Stabilized at low 85/50 mmHg >

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Breath per minute Fluctuating High Between 55-70 Breaths Per Minute >

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Heart Rate Stabilized at High 75 bpm > 

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Blood Glucose Stabilized at Low 67 mg/dL >

< Host // Jamie Reyes // Defective - Temperature Fluctuating High between 104.639 - 107.358 >

A frown concreted its self on his lips, None of those vitals were anywhere near normal or safe. He reluctantly moved from the bed slowly making sure not to wake his lover, thinking of lovers made his concerned about Bart. He hoped he was okay and wasn't freaking out too much. He walked over to the computer and there was suddenly a keyboard under the screen only confirming the idea that this place was shifting and changing like M'ganns bio-ship. As soon as he clicked onto the screen secondary vitals came up.

 

Body Hydration levels

Muscle Composition levels

Melatonin Levels

Body Energy percentages

Caloric Percentages

and at least twenty different body chemicals and Vitamins.

 

None of those was what he wanted so he clicked on a secondary tab on the same page and it switched from his body vitals to the vitals of the scarab and Khaji.

 

Emergency Battery percentage

Electromagnetic frequency radiation

Khaji-Da Unit/Host integration Percentages

B-C-H-8-X-4-K-L-7 Bio-Regen-crystal production.

 

The last one interested Jamie and he clicked on it wondering if it was the crystals that Khaji and just told Dick about. Instead of information on a screen, a holograph opened and surrounded him. It showed a picture of small blue crystals about the size that Khaji had described them. Jamie had remembered finding these around his room after the REACH invasion had ended but Khaji was negligent to explain hat they were, only saying they were "of the utmost importance." Eventually, he had made the false bottom in his drawer to keep them.

He looked at the information on the holograph. _BCH8X4KL7 Bio-Regen-Crystal: Also commonly identified as Biogenetic Regeneration Crystalized Depository Units are small units of genetic information and anti-bodies created by Off-Mode REACH based technology as temporary protection against infiltration from other biotechnological units. The Bio-Regen-Crystals are dissolvable in compound H2O and injected into the off-mode host body for temporary sustainability until scientists can deconstruct and eliminate the biotechnical threat._

He looked at the screen that was running code, it had gone black and then flickered on again with a warning that Jamie had yet to see

< Warning: Bio-Regen-Crystal activation > 

Dick must have gotten the crystals from his room and done as Khaji had instructed him to. For the first time since he had entered the scarab Jamie suddenly felt dizzy and weak, he stumbled his way back to the bed with Khaji spooning him and falling asleep. 


	9. Jamie's Room

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm dedicating this chapter to Raccon because they comment on almost every chapter and it really makes my day.
> 
> Also, Remember the ages are   
> Jamie is about 19  
> Bart is about 17  
> Nightwing is about 23

Dick walked into Jamie's room and locked the door behind him. He had been let into the younger man's house after giving his family half-truth explanations like "The scarab got a bug" and "I need to get something from his room that will help him heal faster" and "Jamie is perfectly fine, there is no need to worry." Though as he thought about it the last one wasn’t a half-truth as much as it was a straight lie. It was hard to look at Jamie's family in the eyes and lie to them. Dick may have viewed the boys as his sons, but these people he was their actual son.   
He had also comforted them and told them that "I had Bart stay behind to watch over him for a while" which was also only a half-truth. The speedster was at the mountain watching over Jamie but it wasn't because Dick had told him to. In fact, it had been impossible to peel the boy away for more than twenty seconds ever since Dick had exited the mind link and told everyone who needed to know what was going on (Bart, Kaldur, M'gann, Batman, Robin, and Flash). Originally he hadn't planned on telling flash but the senior Justice Leaguer needed to know why his grandson wasn't coming home at night. 

Jamie's room was emaculant, everything was clean and in its place. Bookshelves with books and journals organized by topic and height, a laptop with a single flash sticker, and a single blue beetle sticker on it (He always found it amusing how something as small has pretending to be a fan of a certain hero strengthened their secret identities), there was a clean expertly made bed, nothing on the floor or astray on the dressers. It made him wonder how much of this cleanliness was Jamie and how much of it was Khaji. He thought about what Khaji had said to him.

"In the drawer with Barts Sketchpad", He looked around the room for a second before deciding the only logical drawer to have it in would be the drawer in the computer desk with the laptop on it. There was only one drawer, inside was almost exactly what Dick had expected a large sketchpad and heavily used charcoal pencils. He made a mental note as he moved them to buy Bart some new pencils and leave them in his room. 

"there is a false bottom" Khaji had told him if he hadn't Dick wouldn't have immediately noticed the slightly separated edges of the wood bottom. Another mental note to have Jamie help him next time he needed to make a false bottom or secret security hatch. He took a small pocketknife that had been sitting on the edge of the desk and slipped it into the micro-opening between the false bottom and the edge and popping it opened. The space between the false and real bottom was only about a half inch. 

"little blue crystals about two inches by a quarter inch" That was how Khaji had described them. Inside the bottom scattered against the real bottom of the drawer, there were tiny blue crystals. He took his glove off and picked up one of the blue crystals investigating it. It was small and diamond shaped. It looked partially transparent and electric blue like the Nightwing symbol. It felt like some kind of material somewhere between glass and metal but it was odd and warm. There were just under 40 in the drawer. Dick thought about it for a minute, one per month for the three years since the end of the REACH control. He took the one and put it in a little analysis tube to examine later and then he put the other 35 in a ziplock bag and into the drawstring bag that he was carrying. He was doubtful that they would need all of them but he wasn't going to risk it plus he would need to keep some at the cave just in case something like this ever happened again. 

He put the false bottom back and the pocketknife back in its place, he was about to put the sketch pad back before he also added it to his bag hoping that giving it to the speedster would maybe ease his stress. A sigh left his lips and he suddenly found himself sitting on the edge of Jamie's bed all the fear and anxiety from the last couple days welling up in his chest. A fearful sob broke free and he covered his mouth with one hand. Here sitting in Jamie and Khaji's room it became all too real as to how much danger his two pseudo-sons were in and how easily they could die. He pushed his hand down harder on his mouth trying to muffle any sounds he was making with his crying, knowing that if Jamie's family heard him on the verge of breaking down they would freak out. He took off his domino mask with his free hand and let himself cry out all the fear and anxiety for a little while, still covering his mouth to stop any sounds he may make. 

A knock made him hurriedly dry his face and use some pixie glue tablets to stick his mask back on. He unlocked and opened the door to see Jamie's mom standing in front of him "Um... Nightwing" She spoke and Nightwing smiled at her trying to calm her nerves and hoping she couldn't tell he had just been crying. "Can you bring this to Bart, I know he's worried about Jamie and i just want to make sure he's eating" She handed him a covered container that he took smiling 

"I'll make sure they get it" He tried to smile past the rock that felt like it had cemented it's self in his stomach, getting Bart to eat had been all but impossible and he hoped this would help. "I got what a needed and I'll make sure to call you whenever there is an update." She nodded and he left. The fly back to the mountain was silent and stressful even just by himself. Eventually, he got back and made his way to the medbay

"Hey, Bart?" He tapped the speedsters shoulder who looked up groggy and pale, he had been asleep leaning on the edge of Jamie's bed. His face looked red, he had definitely been crying. "I brought you some stuff" He pulled out the Sketchpad and Pencils "and Mrs.Reyes also says to make sure you're taking care of yourself, she sent food" He pulled out the covered container and handed it to the speedster who blushed as his stomach growled loudly. Dick was just as scared and Bart but he couldn't let it show, he had to be strong because if he broke down god knows what would happen to Bart or Jamie. 

After Bart had settled at a table with his food and sketchpad Dick took one of the IV bags of water and dropped three of the crystals in it. They dissolved and it was a beautiful dark purple colour and if Dick hadn't known any better he could have sworn he saw tiny things swimming but he chose not to question it. He watched for several minutes as the fluid dripped into Jamie's bloodstream. As the stuff entered his veins they turned almost bioluminescent through his skin. The strained look that had been on Jamie's sleeping face seemed to relax a little and his vitals held stable. Still at less than desirable levels, but stable 

Now that that was taken care of his next mission was to find the villain they had been fighting and make them reverse this.


	10. Chapter 10

Jamie woke up in excruciating pain, he felt like every nerve on his body was on fire. If he had been in less pain he would have noticed the thin streaks of dark purple across the blacks walls and how they made the alien room even more beautiful. He felt cool arms surround him but he didn't look up to see who it was, he was in too much pain to even open his eyes. 

"I'm sorry" it sounded like Khaji, he sounded upset. He had pulled Jamie into his lap and was rocking gently "I know it hurts, but it's a good thing, it means that it's working." Jamie wanted to answer but it took all the power in his body not to scream. 

He'd been shot, stabbed, electrocuted, and thrown into walls but none of those had even come close to the amount of pain that he was feeling. It felt like someone was stabbing needles directly into his nerves and setting his skin on fire. "I should have warned you" It was Khaji's voice again "I'm so stupid, I was so weak that I forgot how much the Regen-Crystals hurt organic bodies." 

Jamie wanted to comfort him but if he opened his mouth he would scream or cry so instead he took one hand and sat it on Khaji's hand. Moving made the pain even worse and he immediately regretted his decisions. He was squeezing his eyes shut so tight that it was causing light splotches and his jaw was clenches so hard it was giving him a headache. "Make it stop" he eventually managed to croak out, some tears finally falling from his cheeks. Talking made his throat feel like it was on fire but the tears cooled his skin. He felt the arms around him tighten slightly but not in a way that added to the pain that he was in and the gentle rocking seemed to move a little faster. 

"I'm sorry but I can't" Khaji whispered looking at the body in his arms, he seemed so small and Khaji could see the pain etched into every feature of his body. He looked at the screen where code was running and looked for any information that would be useful to him. Poor but stable vitals all except for the breathing rate that was up causing blood oxygen levels to be low. On a split screen with the vitals was a body scan of the pain receptors that was lit up almost completely. He held the body closer knowing that this was all he could do at the moment. He didn't have the technology to fight these creatures from his prison inside the scarab, He prayed that they were having luck finding someone to fix the technology from the outside. 

Listening to Jamie cry and whimper without being able to help him made Khaji wish that he had never gained this sentience to feel and love this human boy. Jamie buried his head into Khaji's chest and Khaji just sat there petting his hair softly and wishing he could make this stop. The Bio-Regen-Crystals gave the scarab power which gave him power but for organic beings, for humans like Jamie, they were some of the most painful things that a human body could ever know. He hoped that Jamie didn't hate him after this. Hate him for forgetting about the pain, hate him for not being able to fight off the invaders on his own, hate him for not stopping the needle from piercing their skin and injecting them with these nanomachines. "I love you" He whispered and softly kissed his lovers forehead glad that he was finally falling asleep, maybe the sleep would help distract him from the pain. 

When he was sure that Jamie was asleep he laid him down on the bed closing his eyes trying to conjure up a nicer more comfortable bed for his lover. He was worried about his lovers, both the one is painful sleep in his bed and the one her was certain was sitting beside Jamie's bed in the medbay. He thought about getting up and going to the computer to try and look over the schematics of the bug but Jamie had a tight grip on his hand so he just held the body and let him sleep through the pain.


	11. Beware The Nightwing

Everyone at Arkham knew to fear the Batman, whenever the black-clad hero walked through the halls everyone let him through questionlessly for fear of wrath. Now everyone at Arkham knew that Nightwing was also to be feared. He marched into Archkam with a purpose and an attitude. The officers at the door had tried to stop him but with a batman style glare and some growled choice words, Nightwing was quickly added to the list of heroes who could just walk into Archkam no questions asked. It would fray his reputation as a gentle hero and it would get him a lecture from the Bat but he didn't care. He marched himself down the dark and dreary halls to a cell near the end, where the less dangerous criminals were contained. This particular cell was holding the man that they had apprehended the other day, it was the asshole who had injected Jamie with the nanotech.

He slammed the door opened and then closed again behind him. "YOU" He growled and the villain was looking at him, he was trembling. Good, he was scared, Nightwing wanted him to be scared. Nightwing needed information and people talked when they were scared. Nightwing grabbed something off of his belt and threw one at the cell window and another at the camera effectively blacking out both of them so there would be no witnesses to the discussion that was about to happen. He grabbed the villain by the throat and slammed him against the wall squeezing his neck enough to prove a point but not enough to make him faint. "Four days ago" he growled with his best bat impression " you injected Blue Beetle with nanotechnology. I need you to tell me what it was."

The man sputtered "I-I don't know. It was given to me by a man" He was stumbling over his words. Nightwing tightened his grip growling.

"What!. Man. ?" He asked punctuating his words. This was just a messenger, not the one with intention. The man struggled against Dicks grip 

"I  don't know he didn't tell me his name. he just said that I needed to deliver the injection." The man was beginning to look pale and Dick knew he was probably squeezing too hard. 

"WELL, WHERE CAN I FIND HIM?" Nightwing was getting angry. He wanted this man to just give up his secrets. Jamie was dying and there was nothing he could do about it. 

"I was supposed to meet him in an abandoned building in elpaso when it was done" 

Dick angrily threw the man against a wall before walking up to him and crouching down. The man cowered into his corner nad Nightwing was happy for his fear. "The address?" He said in his most sickly sweet voice. Whoever was responsible for this attack would pay for it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry I vanished for like 9 months. Nursing school is crazy and I all but forgot about this, but I'm back now.

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment, I basically live off of them.
> 
> Also please excuse any awkward grammar, English isn't my native language.


End file.
